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N. W. GONDIGT, Jr.

Portable Railroad.

No. 233,471. Patented Oct. 19,1880.

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To all whom it may concern:

U ITED STATES PATENT OFFICEQ NATHAN W. OONDIOT, JRJOF JERSEY CITY, NEW JERSEY.

PORTABLE RAILROAD.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 233,477, dated October 19, 1880.

Be it known that I, NATHAN W. GoNnIc'r, J r., a citizen of the United States, residing in Jersey City, Hudson county, State of New Jersey, have inverfted an Improvement in Portable Railroads, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to portable railways which consist of a series of self-contained sections, two connected rails in each section, an example of such a railway being shown in the Letters Patent N 0. 204,007 granted to me May 21, 1878; and the object of my invention is to provide each section with shoes constructed in the peculiar manner fully described hereinafter, so as to afford facilities for readily fitting the sections together in laying the track".

1n the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 is a side view, showing portions of two rails of adjoining sections and the coupling-shoes; Fig. 2, a side view, showing the manner of introducin g a rail of one section into the shoe, which is permanently attached to a rail of an adjoining section; Fig. 3, a sectional plan on the line 1 2; Fig. 4, a transverse section on the line 3 4, Fig. 3; Fig. 5, a transverse section on the line 5 6; Figs. 6 and 7, views showing modified forms of shoes; and Figs. 8 and 9, plan views of two sections of the railway drawn to a reduced scale, and as they appear before they are fitted together.

Each section of the portable railway consists of tworails, A A, connected together by cross-stays, and is furnished at one end with shoes B B, one of which is permanently attached to each rail.

My invention relates to these shoes, the peculiar construction and object of which I will now proceed to describe.

It will be seen on reference to Figs. 3 and 4 that one part of each shoe is permanently secured to the rail A, the shoe being of wroughtiron bent to the form shown, so that its lower portion or base, a, shall underlap the rails, the upper portion or flange, b, conforming in shape with that of the side of the rail to the web of which it is riveted, the base being also riveted to one of the flanges of the rail. It should be understood, however, that it is immaterial how Application filed June 15, 1880. (No model.)

the shoes are secured to that section of the track on which they are to be permanent, for my invention relates to the peculiar construction of that portion of each shoe which has to receive a rail of the adjoining section. About half of the shoe projects beyond the end of the rail, to which it is permanently secured, and the flange of this projecting portion is made outwardly flaring from about the point indicated by the dotted lines 00 00, so that the said ,flange b will at the dotted line 5 6 bear the relation shown in Fig. 5 to the rail A- that is, the flange b of the shoe will be free from contact with the side of that rail.

By outwardly flaring the projecting ends of the shoes of one section in the manner de' scribed, the ends of the rails of the adjoining section can be much more easily adjusted to the said projecting ends of the shoes than if the latter were straight.

To afford still further facilities for adjusting one section of the portable railway to another, I sometimes cut away or bevel the flange at the outer end of each shoe, so that in litting the sections together the rails of one section may be lowered from above into the shoes of the other section, as indicated in Fig. 2, after which by the endwise pushing of one or both sections the proper fitting will be accomplished. This feature, however, forms no part of my present application for a patent.

The shoes may be made as shown in Fig. 7, or as seen in Fig. 6, providing the plan of flaring the flanges of the projecting ends of the shoes is retained.

I claim as my invention- The within-described rail-couplin g shoe, one portion of which is constructed for attachment to one section of a portable railway, the other and projecting portion having its side made outwardly flaring for receiving a rail of the other section, all substantially as set forth.

In testimony whereof I have signed my name to this specification in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

NATHAN W. GONDIOT, JR.

Witnesses W. MUIRHEID, HAMILTON WALLIS. 

